Tuesday 10 February 2009 05.24 EST
First published on Tuesday 10 February 2009 05.24 EST

He's a centre-forward who hardly ever scores. He wants to play for Arsenal but Tottenham will also do. And he scored the winning goal in France's biggest game this weekend, but was "disgusted with himself" after the match. Poor old Marouane Chamakh: the Bordeaux striker's headed goal just before the hour-mark went into his own net, giving Olympique Marseille a 1-0 win in the battle of the challengers for Lyon's Ligue 1 crown.

It might have been different had Chamakh not shot wide after Yoann Gourcuff's early backheel set him up, or if Steve Mandanda had not kept out Fernando Cavenaghi when he was clean through. But as the game went on, Marseille grew in confidence and despite missing four first-teamers – their captain Lorik Cana, top-scorer Mamadou Niang, Bakary Koné and Ronald Zubar – found an unlikely hero in Sylvain Wiltord, the 34-year-old making his first home start for the club. After Chamakh had deflected Karim Ziani's free-kick past Ulrich Ramé, Wiltord even had a goal wrongly ruled out 15 minutes from time. "Wiltord is still here", ran L'Equipe's headline.

The Marseille coach Eric Gerets knew it was a must-win game and his side are now one point behind Bordeaux and five behind Lyon. "We showed that L'OM are capable of getting stuck in and you could feel what was at stake," Gerets said. "We had more to lose than Bordeaux: it was a final for us, not for them. We just have another 15 finals to play now." His future still remains unclear though, and perhaps it was significant that Marseille won with Hatem Ben Arfa on the bench. To his immense frustration, Gerets has been unable to tame the big summer signing. .

This was Bordeaux's chance to show Lyon they are serious contenders but just like at Stade Gerland during week 14, they fell short. "We've been knocking Lyon for several weeks but sadly they're still in front," said the former Bordeaux hero Alain Giresse. "My fear is that no one took the opportunity when they dropped points, and Lyon will get back on track before the end of the season."

The Bordeaux manager, Laurent Blanc, on the other hand, was left to bemoan the missed opportunities, which included Gourcuff heading wide and Jussiê hitting a post late on. The only consolation, it seemed, was that Le Président now has a man-crush on Gerets. "I like his attitude, his analysis and I like him as a man," said Blanc. "It's a bit like with a woman: when you like a woman, you just like her. Gerets is the best signing that L'OM have made."

Lyon's lead is now up to four points after they won 3-1 at Nice, with the midfielder Ederson setting up goals for Jean Makoun and Karim Benzema, on his return to his former club, before Julien Sablé's two-footed challenge on him reduced the hosts to 10 men. The biggest surprise, in fact, was that Nice had two men sent off and neither were their hard-man defender "Sex and Drugs and" Cyril Rool. "Cyril could have been part of France's 1998 world champion generation, he's that good," said the Nice coach Frédéric Antonetti. "But his personality didn't help. Other guys are perhaps smarter and come across better in the media, but it's guys like Rool that make you win matches."

Not this time, Frédi, whose bad week started with the League Cup semi-final loss on penalties to the second division team Vannes, and continued on Sunday when they went down to nine men when the substitute Adeilson elbowed Jean-Alain Boumsong after only 15 minutes on the pitch.

"We're on a funny old run as we win away from home and keep drawing at home but this was a big win for us," said the Lyon coach Claude Puel. L'Equipe suggested that when Le Havre visit Lyon next week, the champions, having drawn their past four home games, might want to use the away team's dressing-room.

Paris Saint-Germain are still in the race and hardly missed Guillaume Hoarau in their 4-1 win at Nantes. "We've rarely bossed a game like that and if we can continue playing like that, then we have the right to dream," said Jérôme Rothen.

It has been a weird week in the capital: as expected, Sébastien Bazin replaced Charles Villeneuve as president, before Bordeaux beat PSG 3-0 in the League Cup semi-final, a game in which Mateja Kezman threw off his shirt and left it on the pitch after he was substituted. The club suspended him for two weeks and his recruitment, at the urging of Villeneuve, appears ever more ludicrous.

"We need to help Kezman, but I'm not too worried about the presidential situation because I'm on my sixth in five years, so I don't get too attached to them," Rothen told L'Equipe. "Anyway, I never wanted conflict with Jacques Villeneuve." "You mean Charles?" the reporter responded. "Yes, Charles," laughed PSG's answer to Joe Kinnear, "but he won't mind, he often used to get our names wrong."

Lille are France's form side, coming from two goals down to beat Sochaux 3-2: the sixth time they have been behind and got something out of the game. If the season had started in week four, they would be top of the table. As it is, they will move into joint-second if they win their game in hand against Le Mans next week. Lille will still be missing the long-term injury victim Tulio di Melo, but Michel Bastos, one of Ligue 1's stars of the season so far, should be back. His replacement against Sochaux, 18-year-old Eden Hazard, scored their last-minute winner and follows Kevin Mirallas as the latest young Belgian prospect to nip over the border and look rather good.

Rennes are doing less well and were victims of the shock result of 2009 when Le Havre ended a run of seven consecutive defeats with a 1-0 win over the Champions League chasers. Rennes have now scored only six goals in their past nine matches and their top scorer, Mikaël Pagis, last scored on 9 November, with Jimmy Briand's last effort one week later. Asamoah Gyan, their €8.5m summer signing from Udinese, limped off with yet another injury. Grenoble are also goal-shy: they drew 0-0 with Valenciennes, are yet to score in 2009, and have only scored four goals in 11 matches in their new stadium.

Both clubs could do with Ligue 1's top-scorer André-Pierre Gignac, back on the score-sheet in Toulouse's 2-0 win over Le Mans. "I'm not letting him go anywhere, and if so, he's going to cost €120m," said the Toulouse president Olivier Sadran. "After all, Lyon say Benzema costs €100m and A-P has scored more than him."

Attention this week remains in Marseille, where France play Argentina on Wednesday night. Diego Maradona got a hero's welcome when he flew in on Sunday night, 19 years after he almost joined Marseille. He is a bigger draw than Raymond Domenech, whose surprise squad picks were the Toulouse goalkeeper Cedric Carasso and Saint-Etienne's Mouhamadou Dabo. For France, expect Eric Abidal to give his Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi an easy ride. "The most important thing is that I don't injure him," said Abidal. "If I did that, Barcelona would tear up my contract."

It will also be interesting to hear Domenech's reaction to the allegation in So Foot magazine that Nicolas Sarkoky is so desperate to see the coach out of a job that he wants France to miss out on South Africa 2010. "Keeping on Domenech adds to the current climate of despair in France," the magazine reported Sarkozy telling an adviser. "Screwing things up and still holding onto your job is great French tradition."

There are obvious similarities between the two men's management styles (Florent Malouda, winger, dropped; Rachida Dati, Minister of Justice, sacked), but that's about all they have in common. "He is as bloody boring a national coach as he was when he played for Lyon," Sarko is alleged to have told a friend at the Parc des Princes. On that count, he is definitely in the wrong: Domenech may be lots of things, but bloody boring isn't one of them.